I took a friend's Encore with a Thompson .280 Rem barrel to the range, loaded it and prepared to fire. The hammer came back smoothly and locked in place, but the trigger would not release. No amount of pressure would allow the hammer to fall. The trigger would not budge. Finally, I called the Range Safety Officer and he helped me trip the firing pin to fire the round. He commented this was the third incident of this nature he had seen with the Encore. The hammer is still locked back. I will take the trigger unit out to try and fix the problem. Has any else experienced this? Cause? Fix?

The only similar issue I have seen is if the bolt up through the pistol grip is too long the rifle will not fire. You could unload it, back the bolt out a bit, and see what happens.

you might try reading through this guys site. He seems to have some good information on these firearms.

http://bellmtcs.com/store/